


You are my Sunshine

by autumnwolf99



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Character Death, M/M, One Shot, Sad, Sunshine - Freeform, negative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-10 21:21:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3303908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnwolf99/pseuds/autumnwolf99
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nico and Will got sent out on a quest, the quest went badly, death and singing ensured. Definitely not a happy-feel-good fic, but probably not one of the saddest you'll read either.<br/>Reader discretion is advised. (I've always wanted to say that)<br/>(Even though there's nothing overly bad in it, I avoided rating it General Audiences because it is rather negative and does have death. I personally wouldn't want my little cousin or anyone of her age reading it. If you disagree, let me know)</p>
            </blockquote>





	You are my Sunshine

It was his fault. It was all his fault… of course it was, when was something not his fault? When was the last time Nico had something… something good... without finding a way to screw it up? He supposed it had only been a matter of time… This time, he thought it’d be different. This time, he thought it might last, he thought he might get to be happy for a little while, he thought he might get a break… He was so, so stupid. He knew he was stupid, and he knew something bad was bound to happen, but… he let himself hope anyway. The same mistake he made when he first discovered he was a demigod, the same mistake he made when Bianca went out on a quest so long ago, the same mistake he made when he sold Percy out to his father for information on his mother… The same mistake he always seemed to make.

Except this time, it wasn’t him taking the brunt of the consequences. He wasn’t the one in the most pain; no, this time it was so so much worse, because someone else was on the ground, covered in blood. Someone else was in his arms, slowly dying. Someone else had gotten hurt, someone not a child of Hades, someone that wouldn’t be able to get some strings pulled and manage to live. Someone he cared about and promised to protect, someone that cared about him and promised the same… He should have known better. He should have known that anything he’d promise would only end like this. The son of the God of the Underworld: destined to be surrounded by death forever.

Gods, was this what it felt like for everyone else? When he disappeared from Camp Half-Blood the first time, was Percy worried about him? What about the incidence with the jar and the pomegranate seeds? Had Reyna and Coach Hedge been this upset when he started fading from shadow travelling too much? Nico doubted it, the only time someone seemed genuinely terrified for him had been when Will forced him to spend three days in the infirmary and he went into a faded, intangible state after passing out one night. Will…. gods, Will… he would have gladly faded back then if it meant right now would never happen. There was no competition: the kid followed around by death, or the bright sunshiney son of Apollo who saved so many demigods over the years, the Camp lost count? No one in their right mind would choose him over Will, hell, he wouldn’t choose himself over Will, yet here they were… He was only worn out from using his powers, a few cuts and scratches scattered about him, and Will was lying in his arms, slowly bleeding to death.

Nico would have done anything to trade places with Will. Anything. But he already prayed to his father and he knew a few things about death… there was nothing he could do. Will was the best healer in the Camp, and maybe if it had been someone else dying and Will teamed up with the rest of the Apollo healers, they could’ve been saved, but… best healer or not, even Will wouldn’t be able to heal himself. At a glance, Will hadn’t seemed too bad… being a demigod with a V.I.P pass down to the underworld, Nico had seen his fair share of horrible deaths and the like. Will just looked like he was covered in a lot of blood… upon closer inspection, Nico realized that it was not just ‘a lot of blood’, one of Will’s arteries had been hit, in addition to all the smaller cuts and injuries he had received. If it stopped there, he might’ve been able to barter with his father, get Hades to pull some strings and find a way to save Will, but… no, of course not. He had to be poisoned on top of all this.

This was supposed to be an easy quest. It was supposed to take a day, and they were supposed to just go out and take care of what had seemed like a small monster problem. They didn’t even get the full three-man quest unit, it had just been the two of them… Nico was supposed to take care of all the fighting, Will was supposed to stand back and provide minor assistance if needed, then handle any necessary healing when things were all said and done. Nico was supposed to protect Will. Gods, this was all his fault… there were just so many and it was getting so hard to keep track of it all. He had been prepared for two or three lesser monsters, something he could take care of by raising  up a few skeletons and sending them off… He was not counting on the monsters being there because someone summoned them, and he was not counting on that someone suddenly summoning an army of the things. Thinking back, Nico wasn’t even sure what they were… not very big, a bit reptilian looking, capable of walking upright, fast, powerful…. and poisonous.

He summoned so many undead that he felt like a literal walking shadow, no where near as bad as during the war when he almost faded, but bad enough that he hadn’t been able to fully focus on the fight… One second, they were winning and everything was going great… the next, his stygian iron sword was being knocked out of his grasp by one of the monsters and he was thinking about how screwed he was, when Will appeared out of no where…. He saw Will taking the attack, he saw his boyfriend falling, he saw blood drip from the monster’s claws…. and then nothing. Nothing, because he lost control. Nothing, until he found himself on the ground, holding Will, no trace of the monsters remaining. He wasn’t sure what happened, wasn’t sure what he did, but he didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was the fact he could quite literally feel Will’s life force slipping away, weakening… and the damn field they were in, the goddamn quiet field, didn’t even have a trace of the battle left and the sun was still shining so brightly he could feel himself getting sunburn.

There was nothing to show how much pain he was in, how much pain Will had to be in. Just some birds singing in the distance and the freakin’ sun beating down like Nico’s world wasn’t in the process of ending. Will should’ve been ok, he should’ve been dancing around in the sunlight and making fun of Nico, talking about him needing to get out more before mentioning that he should probably put on some sunblock because he was not going to waste his healing powers on a sunburnt son of Hades (which was a lie, by the way).

Will should have been singing that song, that damn song he was so fond of… the one he dubbed their theme song and constantly tried to get Nico to sing along to, with no avail. Gods, Nico really hadn’t ever given in, had he? He always planned on giving in, eventually… Will’s sad puppy face was just so cute and Nico wasn’t sure he was ready to deal with the inevitable harassment that’d come when someone inevitably overheard. But now? Now it was too late. Now, he’d probably never hear Will singing it again. He’d never get to see the look of surprise he always imagined he’d get if and when he actually did join in, during the chorus or something.

Before he realized what he was doing, Nico began softly, “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine… you make me happy, when skies are grey…” There was a short pause, in which Nico took a deep breath, squeezing his eyes shut before continuing, “You’ll never know dear, how much I love you… Please don’t take my sunshine away.” His voice cracked on the last word, and he realized he was shaking and…. crying? Nico didn’t think he had the ability to cry anymore. Apparently that was just another thing he happened to be wrong about today.

He almost didn’t think he could continue, he didn’t even know if Will could hear him after all, but then he heard a soft echo of ‘you are my sunshine, my only sunshine’ and he opened his eyes, looking down to find Will gazing back up at him with a small smile. So he continued, Will quietly echoing him, “You make me happy, when skies are grey… You’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away… I’ll always love you and make you happy, if you will only stay the same… But if you leave me, to be alone now, I’ll miss you greatly every day…”

Will’s voice grew progressively quieter as they went on, and Nico tried his best to ignore how quickly his life force was weakening. “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy when skies are grey… You’ll never know dear, how much I love you, please don’t take my sunshine away…” Nico felt Will’s life force disappear completely, and he sensed the exact moment of his death - hell, it’d probably be seared into his memory for the rest of his existence, life and death - and he finished the last line by himself: “Please don’t take… my sunshine… away…” 

**Author's Note:**

> credit to otpprompts on tumblr, one of their posts gave me the idea (and if I find it again, I'll edit it in here. Oops)


End file.
